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Saturday, January 24, 2015

DELTA Module 3 Reading List

Before my course started, I wanted to read the books necessary for the third module to be prepared but I couldn't find much on the reading list for Module 3. When the course started, I realised how useful it would have been for me to have read at least some of the books beforehand.

To help other candidates, I decided to share the reading list for the module. Now, apart from the books for your specialism, which you ideally choose before the course starts, there are also books that are a must-have and a must-read for all specialisms. I will start with those.

The extended assignment for this module consists of five parts. For each part of your assignment, you ideally need to refer to 3-4 books (for your specialism even more), which should go into the bibliography at the end of your assignment. Some books are needed for parts 2, 3 and 4. To write the first part, you need to read quite a few books on the specialism of your choice. I chose Teaching learners online/through distance.blended learning. For this specialism as well as for some others, I will share the book list at the end of this post.

The second part of the assignment is Needs Analysis of your current or potential group of students. You need to read about learning styles, motivation, needs analysis and diagnostic testing. The books to read are:

In the third part of the assignment you write your Course Proposal and for this you need to read about the principles of syllabus and course design. The books (in addition to the ones for part two) for this part are:

Nunan, D. 1989 Syllabus Design OUP

Nunan, D. 1988 The Learner Centred Curriculum CUP

Harmer, J. 2007 The practice of English Language Teaching Pearson (not on the list but I found it very useful)

In part four of your assignment you need to discuss Assessment and Evaluation. To complete this part, you again need some of the books from the lists above and also:

McNamara, T. 2000 Language Testing OUP

Part five is the conclusion so you just refer to the books you cross-referenced in part one of the assignment, books related to your specialism.

Now for the specialisms, which are:

Business English

Teaching young learners/young adults

English for Special Purposes

English for Academic Purposes

ESOL learners with clear specialist needs

Teaching exam classes

Teaching one-to-one

Teaching monolingual classes

Teaching multilingual classes

Teaching in an English-speaking environment

Teaching in a non-English-speaking environment

Teaching learners online, through distance/blended learning

Teaching English to learners with special requirements

Language development for teachers

I am sure you will know a lot more about the specialism you choose, so I would like to share the books which I was required to read for Teaching learners online, through distance/blended learning and the books which I found useful for this assignment. A lot of useful articles regarding online teaching can also be found on the Internet.

It is not a silly question at all, MB. As I focussed on IELTS, I used a practice test from past exams and my justification was that it is more reliable for me and the students would see it as a valid test. I recorded their speaking and shared the link to the recording to prove that I have done it.In terms of General English or ESP, I suppose, making own material and test would be seen as a much better decision. I hope this helps.

Hi Anna, thanks so much for your response. Could I ask you one more thing about Module 3? How much time would I need to spend with the same group of students in order to properly do Module 3? How much time did it take you to complete it, and did you stay with the same group for the duration of the time? Thanks so much for your help!

The length of module 3 on the Distance Delta is a bit more than 3 months (like a week more than 3 months) and the group was the same. As I was to design a course of blended learning IELTS, I met the students face-to-face once a week when the actual course started, and the rest was done online. Before the start of the course we met for the diagnostic testing only. As the learner profile is a requirement, I created and send an online questionnaire and collated the results; some of my group mates, met their learners face-to-face for that as well. After that you work with the same group, you cannot change learners as the learner profile is written specifically for each one of them.If you have more questions, I am here to help. :)

Thank you! If I am doing a One to One specialism, do you think 9 weeks contact with the student is enough time to gather enough information to do Module 3? Or is that not long enough? And just to clarify, you did all of Module 3 in 3 months + one week, keeping contact with the same group of students for the whole time? Thank you again!

OF course it is. It does not have to be an existing student. It can be a new student for whom you need to plan a course that would meet the learner's needs stated in the learner profile). So don't worry about that. :)I did all of Module 3 with the same group. as I was still teaching them. But it does not require you to teach the same student for that long. You are just writing a course proposal, evaluating its effectiveness and deciding on assessment of the learner/course goals, progress etc. Don't worry about it. Module 3 is not that hard. :)